Dea Dea

Incredibly suspenseful. Includes very easily understood information about spy craft, and hedge funds or the stock markets. And the so-called Russian mindset. I'm happy to have found an audiobook which has kept me glued to my earplugs.

They changed history. And could the rationale behind the naive and reckless villains actually be considered sound? Phenomenal research. Fascinating characters. Reads like a thriller novel. Hoover's FBI after WWII, the agents, their families, spy craft, the meticulous work of counter-intelligence. The cold war. If you admire the work of Ben MacIntyre, such as Spy Among Friends, you will definitely want to read this. The audiobook is perfect.

Altogether it was entertaining. Interesting characters. I was surprised at first because of the way the narrative coincided with certain conspiracy theories. Like wait, what? Things got Western in a hurry! Is this like a confessional embedded in here or . . . Anyway I read this book, my second in their collaboration, because I wanted to learn more about our Politics and Government, and I certainly did!

The audiobook was outstanding: suspenseful, touching, and highly intelligent. And original. I appreciate the sentiment of including a Black character in the conversation about Nature and the Appalachian Trail. Dear Black people. I've never heard it in real life, but if you do use a lot of profanity when you are in Euro-majority environments, Please Please Stop. This infantile, primitive and highly offensive lingo finds its way into some really good books! We're talking masters like Pronzini, Baldacci, and now this writer, Amity Gaige. I have personally never heard non-stop cussing for no reason in random conversations, but I don't doubt that some other Americans have observed this, or it would not be included in their books.

Suspenseful. Outstanding descriptions of the rugged mountains. There is more focus on former special operatives Nate Romanowski and Geronimo Jones this time. I'm definitely okay with reading about the contentious politics of the characters. They challenge my own views.

A very interesting thriller which features true-life one-liners about the America's amazing, astounding, National Park System. Diverse heroes - all of whom are relatable - battle domestic terrorists who make the J6 crew look like deranged road clowns. A wonderful audiobook reading by Gregory Abbey.

Outstanding and unusual. Dense, atmospheric, suspenseful. 1960s and early’70s. Masterful writing. A classic. I first read about American hippie settlements in Australia in one of Jo Nesbo’s great crime books, where they were still holding onto a long-lost lifestyle. In this book we are there in 1972; and it’s somehow contemporary. The audiobook presentation by Stefan Rudnicki is definitely in my Top Three.

A suspenseful True Crime book; it reads like a thriller novel. Howard Blum revisits the legacies of movie pioneer D. W. Griffith, and ‘America’s Sherlock Holmes’ William J. Burns, and Defender of Workers and the Poor, the legendary Clarence Darrow. Were they flawed? Of course. But their careers intersect after The Crime of the Century — the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, which killed over 21 employees and injured 100. Billy Burns’ investigation was remarkable. He was hired by Publisher Harrison Gray Otis, a true ideologue. Meanwhile the wildly creative Mr. D. W. Griffith began to look at the “hard, mean, foreign land in our own cities” with ‘The Musketeers of Pig Alley’. He realized that “gangsters were never boring”. Why did Labor Leaders resort to violence? Investigative journalist Lincoln Steffens had termed the bombing “Justifiable Dynamiting” — to the stunned silence of the defendants. The wildly successful publisher E. W. Scripps termed the defendants “enlisted soldiers in a war” who “should have the same beligerent rights as a nation in warfare.” We learn about the organized “War Against Capital” at the turn of the century, the birth of Hollywood, the film Birth of a Nation, privatization of water leading to the expansion of Los Angeles. (No notes about the Burns Agency and The Brotherhood of Timber Workers.) American Lightning won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, 2009. The audiobook was perfect, read by John H. Mayer.

Infantile. Plot holes every few pages make the book a tiresome experience. Almost all thriller novels have gaps in logic, but not like this. Two stars for his “macguffin” technique - a unique backstory for the protagonist used to advance the story. By chapter 20, I lost interest.